Business leaders launched a new campaign yesterday to win £200m Government investment to electrify the Wrexham to Bidston rail link.

Bosses on the Deeside Industrial Park also want an upgrading of the Hawarden Bridge stop on the line, to be renamed as the ‘Deeside Enterprise Zone’ station.

Executives warned that the lack of basic rail infrastructure deters new businesses from locating to the area, despite Deeside being one of the most successful zones.

Askar Sheibani, chief executive of telecoms company Comtek, said the rail service – which unites enterprise hubs in north east Wales and Merseyside – has been branded too infrequent and slow, often due to breakdowns on the line.

“The poor service has diminished aspirations to commute to the areas the train line serves and has become an obstacle for businesses operating in the region,” he said.

Now the Deeside Industrial Park business forum, chaired by Mr Sheibani, is to spearhead a campaign, with cross-party support, to raise the issue up the political agenda at Westminster ahead of the 2019 rail spending plans.

In the meantime, he argued, extra services should be introduced with trains should running at least every half an hour, compared with the current five a day .

Lord Barry Jones, president of the Deeside Industrial Park, said: “With more businesses and more jobs comes a more prosperous community, but this growth will be stunted if transport links continue to fall below par.”

Welsh secretary David Jones held a cross-border summit of stakeholders in August to discuss the proposal for a business case for the investment. He said: “Electrification of the Wrexham to Bidston line could well be a critical investment to help stimulate further investment at the enterprise zones on both sides of the border. I’m delighted that the business case to support this proposal is now well underway.”